Israeli TV: “Would You Permit an Arab to Get Your Donated Organ?”

There are many times here when I’ve begun a post saying something along the lines of “Israel has gone well and truly mad.” This is one of those nights. A popular Israeli TV presenter, Tzvi Yehezkeli, posed this question to his Facebook followers:

“Tell us what you think: should an organ donor be allowed to decide who should receive their donated organ? Just to Jews? Or to anyone in need, including Arabs?”

Censored version of Facebook promo for Zvi Yehezkeli program on organ donation

These bizarre, racist questions sent a collective shiver through social media platforms. The comparisons to Nazi Germany were obvious and readily noted. What specifically makes a Jewish organ different from a non-Jewish one? Or a Jewish body different from a non-Jewish one? Where in the Torah or Talmud does it say that Jewish bodies are fundamentally different from non-Jewish ones? Where does it say that saving a life should be restricted to saving only a Jewish life?

The question raises other issues as well: what about the recipient? If he’s Jewish may he restrict organs transplanted into his body only to Jewish donors? I’d be willing to bet a hefty sum if one of the Israeli Jews who admit to the camera they wouldn’t give an Arab an organ would be happy to accept an Arab organ themselves if it would save their lives. Thus the hypocrisy abounds.

In the video preview of the program (the full program was aired a few hours ago in Israel and is not yet available online), a medical doctor clearly declares that this entire notion is not only ridiculous but a complete violation of medical ethics. Even further, permitting donors or recipients to determine who will receive or give an organ defeats the entire purpose of the transplant protocol, which is based solely on medical considerations. When you get an organ and from whom you get it should be solely determined by traditional medical protocols developed over decades relating to the health of the recipient and the likelihood the transplant will significantly improve quality of life. It is truly an abomination to mingle religious considerations with anything else. I hesitate to even write the words “religious considerations,” because these racist notions are not part of my Jewish religion. And I am disgusted they would be part of any Jew’s considerations.

Can you imagine a white organ donor telling the transplant facility he will only give his organ to a white man? Or a Catholic saying he would only donate to a fellow Catholic? In what sort of society is this acceptable behavior, or even permissible?

Channel 10 later offered a disclaimer saying that the viewer poll featured on its Facebook page shouldn’t have been understood to have represented the views of Yehezkeli. Instead, they were merely questions posed to those interviewed for the program itself. Which begs the question: who thought that these were proper questions that should be presented to an Israeli viewing audience? The station has also removed the one-minute video preview featured above, perhaps out of embarrassment. If anyone here has the full program, please be in touch.

Further, a Haredi rabbi interviewed on the program, who runs a transplant service for Orthodox Jews, explicitly says that permitting donors to make such restrictions vastly increases the number of organ donations. In other words, this racist practice is already in effect in Israeli medicine. I don’t know enough about Israeli medical practice to know if there are specific hospitals in Israel which honors these demands. Perhaps there are hospitals in largely Orthodox communities which follow such procedures. If so, it is a perversion of real medicine.

It also reminds me of infertile couples who need a sperm or egg donor to conceive, and who demand donors with genius IQs or Ivy League degrees. When my wife and I faced a similar decision, I asked her what she thought we should look for. Her reply was: a healthy donor. That’s all. As for all the rest, who cares? And she was right. White, Black, Christian, Muslim–what does it matter?

I’ve often quoted the Talmudic dictum: if you are told you must kill a man or be killed, you cannot kill another. Then it adds: “For is your blood redder than his?” In other words, you are both human beings. You are no better than him. You cannot put yourself above him and decide your life is more worthwhile than his. The same is true of organ donation. As far as bodies are concerned, you are human beings. Not Jews, not “Arabs.”

I’ve often featured reports on polls indicating the deep well of racism in Israeli society. This TV show offers a perfect exemplar of this problem. Something most Israelis wouldn’t even see as a problem: and that too is part of the problem.

time and again i’ve said that dirty american money has fostered and festered to turn JUDAISM INTO A RACIST CULT.
we are the PURE RACE. WE DO NOT ALLOW ANYONE INTO IT AND JOIN US. ONLY THE PURE BLOODED ARE WELCOME
only the duck step is missing THE REST IS ALL HERE.
thank you american jews and trumpist for stealing my faith

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January 5, 2018 2:49 AM

Ed

[comment deleted: off-topic]

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January 5, 2018 12:55 PM

marty

Theoretically since the donor is the owner of the organ it seems logical that he would have the right to stipulate his own wishes.
In all fairness the same poll should be taken from the Arab side. I am sure it would come out the same if not more extreme.
Yehezkeli is an excellent Arabist but I was shocked to find out that from a total secular Jew he became a ‘na..nacher..’
you know the ones that believe a note fell from the heaven to repeat the ‘mantra’ na….nahman from Uman etc.
I don’t know if you have them in the States but they are ‘MOK’ {meshugin offen kup}

@ marty: The point is that once the donor gives the organ it’s no longer his. It belongs to the medical team which decides what to do with it.

In all fairness the same poll should be taken from the Arab side. I am sure it would come out the same if not more extreme.

The point is it doesn’t matter what the donor wants, whether he’s Israeli Jew, Palestinian, Tongan, or Zulu. Medical protocol takes the decision out of his hands. He gives the organ then medical professionals decide who’s best to receive it. No layperson, no matter how altruistic, has the right to make such a medical decision.

Further, I’m relatively certain you are totally wrong. All polls of Israeli Palestinians show them to be far more tolerant than their Israeli Jewish counterparts.

I see no possibility that an Orthodox Israeli Jew can be “an excellent Arabist.” Nor do I understand why such a program shouldn’t be hosted by…wait for it…an Arab [sic]!! From the perspective of an Israeli Jew he be a good Arabist. But from an unbiased perspective I’m sure this is wrong.

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